Yesterday one of the major print media in Nigeria sought my opinion on the value of social media to business. This discussion is published today in the paper’s business page. I am happy that social media is beginning to show up in the radar of our business operations. But as we know the bandwagon effect of many businesses rushing to embrace the platform will affect Returns on investment they can all derive. Social media is helping business owners shape perception. Like one writer says ‘Perception is all there is. There is no reality only perceived reality’ Therefore we must learn to manage perception in social media through a stand out initiative.

Most brands join the bandwagon of social media application to business promotion with an erroneous impression that people are bound to listen to their marketing pitches. The naked truth is that people are damned tired of listening to such stuffs. Customers are tired of being marketed to. They are seeking for solid relationship that will lift them up, make them make better and informed decision.

Since social media provides an equalizing platform to express and connect with targeted audience through valuable content, the amount of information available has compelled audience to either close their eyes or ears to some business initiative in this regard. To really stand out in social media effort, business must rethink the strategy of holding up money, merchandise as major factor to building solid relationship, impact.

To stand out, I have come up with four unique factors that will enable any brand stand out in its social media effort. I do not claim to know it all but strongly believe these will work any day.

1. Compelling content: content is king in social media. Never underestimate the power of great and compelling content that will help your target audience excel, look great and smart among their peers. Whatever platform a brand chooses, content drives traffic. Great content propels word of mouth advertising that will spread the buzz about the brand any day any time.

 2. Creativity: I like to define creativity as the open difference you make in turning something common to an extra ordinary experience. How creative are you in the dissemination of your content. Do you focus on text or add audio, video, great visual design that is appealing to the audience? I have since discovered creative video adds a lot of credibility to content creation and I may soon be incorporating this if my logistic is perfected.

3. Clients/target collaboration: A tree does not make a forest is an age long cliché. To stand out in social media it will be good to find a community of admirers, followers, target who will be willing to help spread the buzz. To become viral, your community collaboration will help a lot.

4. Consistency: whatever you do, you do not stand out by once in a blue moon appearance on the radar. To stand out, you need persistence, commitment, consistence innovation, trial and error. I have not seen an outstanding social media expert who had not heard his/her own share of failure.

Let me conclude with Allen says’ opinion when he wrote ‘create the site you have been looking for, write like you would like t be written to, sell like you would want to be sold to, talk like you would like to be talked to, deal like you would like to be dealt with, create for others what you would like created for you and excite others the way you would like to be excited. I guess these are golden rules of social media that make your brand stand out or what do you think? Write your thought in the comment section.

Today many brands are yet to see the impact of running a blog can have on their performance. Many brands still believe that blogs are just for small kids or any brand that just want to join the bandwagon, plays ‘me too’ game. What an individual do not know will rob him of its value. Blogs are gradually becoming a positioning tool that helps some brands to stand out when properly done. There is no denying the fact that great blogs are products of strategic goal, planning, dedication, commitment, research, reading, and listening among other factors. Content is key and optimization of the blog, content is also a great work.

For some who may not know what a blog is, it is good for us to start this way, a blog is the shorten form for the word web-blog which can be translated as a web journal. Interestingly blogs have become a veritable tool in social marketing. A tool to gather feedbacks from the target as it has transformed monologues to conversation. Though what I have noticed is that to have a personal, corporate blog that will really help the brand, individual needs consistent, compelling, creative contents that draw people back.

Blogs offer visibility that a brand may not have enjoyed before. It has also increased ‘linkability’. In a recent data released by Technorati 2009, I understand that 71% say they have greater visibility in their industry when they have blogs. 56% say their company is now regarded as a thought leader as well as 40% have been asked to speak at conferences. Adam singers say ‘the importance of having a blog today is premised on the fact that the future is not telling it is showing’.

 A blog helps a brand to remain in the radar instead of being out of radar. It helps a brand to stay in touch especially if the blog has become a force in intelligent and relevant knowledge sharing. A great brand blog can help the brands make more engaged customers who are willing to give a referral, positions brand’s expertise, launch a project as well as to experiment with great ideas that the brand may want to push. The instance response to the ideas expressed on the blog can provide a bird eye view opinion of what the future of that brand’s idea look like.

For brand to go far know, not being afraid to give away free knowledge by the brand will help to create a thought leadership. If in doubt find out from many brands that have recognized blogs. They will be able to tell you that they enjoy WOM than those brands that have remained silent. Those who do not have spend more money on pushing their ideas and they all have to depend on third party to express their opinion. Meanwhile strong brand platforms in forms of blog can serve as a voice for any brand to express its own side of the story. This may/will help the brand to enjoy public sympathy that may not be there before. Interestingly many strong brands now have a platform through which they disseminate news that may be of interest to them.

Without a blog today, you may be doing a lot of damage to your brand without knowing. Thought leadership helps brand to stand out as well as fashion out a strong niche that draws necessary attention from the target market. I know you have being involved in the conversation but where is your brand’s platform that guarantees your brand’s voice will be heard loud and clear?

I have been asked several times why do I think Twitter holds any benefits for Nigerian and African brands. The reason to some is that the population of Nigerians and Africans on twitter is still negligible compare to the western world. The concerns Ihave noticeds on the faces of those who asked such question  has made me to conclude that many do not want to pay the price Twitter requires to be successful.

Unlike Facebook which is easier to operate. Couple with the fact that facebook comes with a lot of fun, I always consider twitter as more for serious professionals, brands that want to pay the price to make a mark. This is based on the premise that it forces users to think, it demands that brands say what it has to say within the limit of 140 characters. Unlike Facebook, Brands (individuals) may not have the luxury of creating events- there may be possibility soon, fan page among other factors. With regards to fan page, there is an argument that bothers on quality over quantity of relationships (followers).

Some believe that the quantity of brand’s followers will determine its influence when others play more emphasis on quality. I am more of quality than quantity. Whichever way an individual falls, each has its own benefits and this should be weighed against the objective, goal of twitter usage. Those who think of quality argue that it allows faster brand’s message spread and visibility while quality school of thought believes in effectiveness of relationship, engagement, commitment among followers. But let us leave the argument for some other days.

For those who see twitter as very demanding and uninteresting, they always missed out in the game. A  Harvard University study shows that sixty percent of twitter users just signed up and use it only once. My research has shown also that many African users fall within this category. To overcome the inertia most brands in Africa have towards Twitter, it will be good to pen down these thoughts.

Twitter has exponential power for brand awareness, visibility. When twitter is properly annexed and incorporated into brand’s communication tool, it can be used for brand activation, product development and launch. It can also help to foster engagement. Other usage of Twitter includes advocacy, customer support. Needless to say is that to get the best of twitter, it is out of place to use all the brand’s tweets on self promotion, pitching. Engagement, strong bonding is not guaranteed when someone else continues to flaunt his ego. Instead always ensure you give quality content, ask for your followers’ opinion, get feedback and respond accurately without getting angry about any issue. Also it may be good to acknowledge the good in others by promoting them if it is possible.

To get the best, brand must first listen to the conversation, then follow the trend, issues, conversation, then create your own relevant content, support system which will help your brand engagement. Do you have success story using Twitter? Share it.

Everyday gives me an opportunity to learn and observe people around me. I learn from people who have been successful and those who are still on the radar of success as well as from a complete fool. In fact there is no one on the surface of the Earth that qualifies for such appellation as ‘complete fool”. The more we dig deep the more we find the wisdom in the lifestyle of someone we call fool. The kind of wisdom we may learn may not necessarily be what works but what may not work so one can distance his ways from such lifestyle.

In a recent chat with a group of individuals, someone asked me ‘how long should I stick to personal branding building? My answer shocked the individual. Because I could see he was actually looking for a quick fix it. I did answer by saying ‘as long as someone has his being’. The reason is not farfetched. Sometimes you get it right and sometimes you have to manage the result of a misadventure in order to minimize its effects. Sometimes the journey may seem long, tiresome and one may think of quitting because of lack of immediate, quantifiable result. When someone is discouraged in the journey, it will be the best time to read biographies, minds of those we refer to as successful. One can do this by reading their books, listen to their audios or visit blogs of successful people.

Recently I read an excerpt of Larry King’s (Of CNN) book ‘The Art Of Talking’ where he maintained that his first radio job was gotten through enthusiasm about 37 years ago. That is not just an addendum but a pointer to something. The followings are some of my thoughts on how to make your personal branding efforts count:

Plan: you must know where you are going and chart a course to the place. Be ready to set achievable goals that will not increase your blood pressure unnecessarily. Set target on how to achieve your desire.

Patience: Never take yourself too seriously. You are not an instant super star. Otherwise you will get frustrated so easily. A time was when there was no single comment on all my blog post here. Along the line I nearly become bitter. Thinking my work is not getting recognition or attention. I almost abandoned the project. I guess I must be honest with someone out there. But later I changed my mind and continue; today the story is changing as everyone can see. Rome was not built in a day is still applicable to personal branding project. Individual needs high level of patience dose to excel.

Perseverance:  The higher level of patience is perseverance. This is the icing on the cake. Many people would have fallen along the way before they get here. This is how to add ‘extra’ to the ordinary to make it extraordinary. My question today is ‘are you given in to discouragement and you want to let go? Remember you are closer to the goal than when you first started. Keep at it.

Attention deficit disorder is a coinage of the new age. No one seems to have time for anything except those things that are of utmost importance to them. No one is extremely interested in your brand except if it adds value to them. The noise level is not even helping the matter. The noise level online today is just to high but that does not nullify the fact that everyone has a chance of making meaningful impact if one has taken time to know how to join the conversation.

In order not to be infected with this disease, your brand need to maximize every potential opportunity to make a lasting impact. For your personal brand to enjoy immunity against A.D.D, it is expedient that you continually show, market your competitive advantage. Getting attention today is huge work. Promoting a strong brand ‘you’ competitive advantage that qualifies you for targets’ precious time is important. To do this successfully, it is important that individual put a lot of effort in in preparing for their opportunities. When the teacher is ready, the student will show up and vice versa is still relevant. Treat every opportunity in form of attention given you as precious. You can also create your own opportunities by ensuring that you give out a compelling offer that will equate or surpass targets’ time investment.

Remember optimism alone will not do the magic of getting attention from your target. Opportunity without enough time invested is a dangerous syndrome. Let me conclude here that the world is indifferent about who you are. Everyone wants attention. Yours is an extra baggage on them. They will only tag along if you have a compelling offer that will not make your extra baggage a burden but a delight to them. No one wants to waste his time. So beware, do not allow Attention Deficit Disorder to catch up with your personal brand. It has infected many brands. The result of this disease is that many brands have lost their relevance.

In about two weeks ago, I had the opportunity of anchoring a reunion meeting for my Alma matter where I did my undergraduate studies. As the custom is, during most reunion meetings, each person has opportunity to introduce him/herself to the group. The first thing that dawn on me was that many still do not still have a sellable personal elevator speech in this age and time. Personal selling speech is ‘insanely’ important today because it tells people at a glance who you are.

May be one day we will focus on that here. Most people that I listened to confused this great personal marketing tool with what their job titles are and  what their companies are offering.

Personally, though I learnt a great  lesson that day as a professional. Because I assumed this gathering brings together graduates who have left college for years and most of whom are gainfully employed, I played the expert game when it came to my turn to introduce myself.

Ideally on a good day, my elevator speech runs like this: I am Yinka Olaito. I help individuals, organizations to maximize values in their brands/ideas through adequate positioning of their brands to the target audience that can pay premium. My competitive advantage is in developing engaging strategy that turns customers to advocates .I am a multi-skilled individual who combines passion with right skills to make my unique difference. If there is time, I now add those skills I use that you can find here.

With the assumption that I am talking to learned persons that they are, I just used my usual byline above. The chorus of: ha ha, ha ha, caught my attention and I was wondering what I did wrong. The truth I learnt was that, while using your elevator speech, look around at your audience and break it down to their levels incase you may be sounding too big to the people you want to sell yourself to. I learnt that day to look around and see whether I need to simplify my elevator speech based on the environment. I immediately coined a simpler one for audience that may find the above too big to comprehend. So here is what I came out with: I am yinka olaito, I help individuals, organizations create, find opportunities that give them vantage position .Do you agree with me, can you share your own experience in this regard?

Crisis is part of life. We may be able to avoid some through adequate planning, strategy. Crisis explosion is now given a wing to fly online, brand must add knowledge. Recent cases are there to access. Crises do strike many brands but it affects unprepared brands more than the ever ready brands. Interestingly most crises do not discriminate against any industry. If it is peculiar challenge of all it does mean it can reach brands in that industry. Every crisis has the potential to damage the reputation of a company.  Some crises have capacity of not only draining the financial reserves of some brands but can also affect the mental health of the brand at large. Certain factors are now available to show why many brands fail in their bids to cub brand crisis on time.
Our focus here is not about crisis prevention, that will be for some other days. Our intention is to outline process of online crisis formation

1. Concealed: online crisis at this level will begin with scattered comments, offline discussions, and casual exchanges of words which are typed on the internet. People have started asking questions from friends, colleagues as well

2. Emerging: at this level, there is an increase on the stakeholders’ awareness of the issues, some opinion leaders and industry influencers are beginning to take interest in the casual conversation of the community members.

3. Consolidation:  At this level of online crisis process, issues are reaching maturation and audience are already forming opinions and pushing it to the front burner of online community. People are already taking sides, forming beliefs; passing judgment. If a brand waits to this time to begin to act, it appears the effort is way behind the action. Most times this result when a brand do not have an online, community manager or it has uneducated manager in the field of digital reputation software, knowledge management. Since times are changing, brands need to create this position especially those that have global reach as their aims.

4. Critical: the worst and final stage of online crisis is the critical stage. Strong presence and planning before hand can safe a brand from total damage that this level of crisis can bring. Using all online social media tools here is required but even at that there is need for counsel from either a recognized consultant or a trained in-house staff. Brand must acknowledge that even though public forgives accident, but they hardly forgive corporate, personal brands whose attitude, response is either inadequate or not forthcoming. So where are you know and what plans do you have to combat online crisis when one happens

Social media has moved from a new device to the future of every brand. Many international communities are annexing the opportunity provided by social media to gain visibility and build strong communities. Even though our environment is just growing its internet audience most of which are using social media with majority on face book; proper understanding of social media helps in no small measure but we  guide against violating the rules. Brands as well as brand drivers also need to know how to annex social media opportunity. As a leading brand, social media expert in Nigeria, as well as a member of social media club International, California, with other friends who are lovers of social media; we are initiating a process of inaugurating Nigeria chapter of the club. Social media Club International is a professional organization that brings together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators. Essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry’ evolve for everyone’s benefit. So are you on facebook and other social media? Do you  understand what benefits you may be missing out? Please link up with us. All you have to do is to join the group on facebook:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=98457170756&ref=nf .The purpose is to offer avenue to network, share experience. The club presently has over fourteen chapters in Europe, Asia among other continents. The Nigeria chapter when launched will be the first in Africa. The launching date is in June 2009. Further details will be communicated to members.

No body can deny that google is a leading search engine in the world. Google is a good librarian and keeper of information accessible to it. Google never forgets. According to a research by Robert Harris “Google  is the premier search tool on the Internet today, featuring not only the best Web search engine, but many additional features including a directory, image search, current news, user groups, and more. What has made Google the search tool of choice for so many users… One of the advantages of Google’s effective method of finding and ordering pages for you is that even a simple search, such as typing in a couple of words, can produce excellent results. For a basic query, you don’t need any fancy logical operators.”

Goggle supplies what is seemed as ‘believable, appropriate and dependable information at its disposal. This may be to the brand’s advantage or otherwise depending on what the brands intends to portray. This is the major reason why brand should have a curriculum vitae that can sell the brand before any personal contact is made.

Today people do not have to come to any brand to ask about it. Several background checks are now made. Without a google CV, do you think that will be possible?

Whether the brand thinks in affirmative or the otherwise most brands leave their brands’ google CV to chances. Others help them input wrong data in their online brands’ CVs so much so that when a first timer wants to have encounter with the brand, what is displayed is enough for the searcher to “vomit” the brand out rightly without given the brand a chance.

Let us examine some of the basic advantages of brand’s google CV.

1. Facilitates communication: whether we realize it or not, communication goes on online. Brand can not therefore be quite about its own future. Be where you should be. Ensures that Google has right information to pass around about your brand.

2. It brings connection: some people are connected with the brand even before their physical contact. People should have information that will draw them to you and Google helps brands to build that connection.

3. Opinion: connection and relationships thrives on good information and right perception. Ensure Google has great opinion about your brand.

4. Promotes Curiosity: your google CV may promotes more curiosity and a panting in the hearts of people around the world.

5. May guarantee brand’s positioning: Google’s Brand’s CV may guarantee certain positioning in the minds of its public. Crowd endorsement still rules. Does your brand’s CV has a lot of endorsements from niche authority.

Having said these, I think each brand must CV its Google CV as a marketing tools and it must ensures that negatives are reduced to the barest minimum. Make sure Brand’s google CV exemplifies brand’s value, experience, expertise, endorsement and other vital statistics that may be essential.